The Solar energy Corporation of India (SECI) paid nearly ₹3.85 billion (~$52.6 million) to solar and wind developers in November 2020, which amounted to over 60% of the total amount disbursed by the agency during the month.

According to data released by the nodal agency, it had paid out over ₹6.35 billion (~$86.8 million) during the month towards subsidies, solar and wind power purchases, duty, and tax reimbursements, payments for services, among other fees and charges. Overall payouts in November 2020 were about 17.5% lower compared to the previous month.

SECI paid nearly ₹3.7 billion (~$50.2 million) to solar and wind developers in October 2020, which amounted to 48.9% of total disbursements during the month.

Clean Solar (Bhadla), SB Energy One, Orange Sironj Wind Power, Wardha Solar (Maharashtra) were some of the companies that received the most payouts for power purchases in November 2020.

SECI said it also released about ₹2.32 billion (~$31.7 million) in subsidies of which ₹1.9 billion (~$25.9 million) was under the first phase of the Central Public Sector Undertaking (CPSU) Program and ₹196 million (~$2.7 million) was under phase II. Payments under the CPSU program accounted for nearly 33% of SECI’s payouts during the month.

The subsidy payments also included ₹147 million (~$2 million) under the rooftop solar program and ₹80 million (~$1.1 million) under the viability gap funding program. The top recipients of subsidies were NTPC Limited, Mundra Solar, and Sudhir Power.

The nodal agency paid ₹103 million (~$1.4 million) to solar power developers in reimbursements for Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Safeguard Duty claims under the annuity method. Azure Power, Wardha Solar, and Clean Sustainable Energy were among the top recipients of these reimbursements.

During the month, SECI also released around ₹31 million (~$423,770) as payment for transmission charges and ₹51 million (~$697,170) in contractor and service provider payments.

These regular disbursements by SECI come as a relief to renewable energy developers reeling under overdue payments by power distribution companies across the states. Mercom reported that distribution companies owed over ₹110.67 billion (~$1.5 billion) to renewable energy generators (excluding disputed amounts) in overdue payments across 439 pending invoices at the end of October 2020, according to data from the Ministry of Power.